Riftling Rogue
Demons become Heroes to combat the Dark Consul for their own closely guarded reasons. Masters of striking from the shadows, Riftling Guild adepts can find the chink in any armor. More important to many though is their uncanny knack to find the most valuable treasure in any dungeon. Stats *'Type:' Demon Hero *'Crystal Affinity:' Emerald *'Abilities:' Luck, Stealth *'Unique Actions:' Backstab, Bamf! *'Potions:' Dimensional Draught *'Speed:' 7 *'Actions:' 3 *'Strength:' 3B (Melee: 1) *'Armor:' 2B (Defense) *'Willpower:' 1B 1R *'Dexterity:' 2R (Defense) *'Hearts:' 5 *'Potion Quantity:' 1 Gameplay Stats: '''The Riftling Rogue has average offense with 3B STR and above average defense with 2R DEX, which is enhanced with Stealth to better avoid ranged attacks. She has above average 7 movement. She has Luck, which improves her chance to draw treasure the party can use and allows her avoid undesirable treasure cards such as Boo Booty's by shuffling them back into the deck. '''Abilities: Backstab improves the Rogue's offense to 3B1G STR (4 avg/10 max stars) and adds Massive Damage, which allows her to fulfill the Blaster role in a party. Given her high mobility, she will typically be able to strike at her target using Backstab before they have a chance to retaliate. Massive Damage is effective against spawning points and can stack with Critical Success against monsters. Once she has 3B1R1G (5.17 avg/13 max stars), she will on average deal up to 3 wounds to elite monsters per Backstab assuming Critical Success and the target is not Sturdy. Although Backstab is extremely powerful, its tradeoff is its high cost of 3 action points so the Rogue will only be able to use it at most once per activation, even with additional action points. As the Rogue only has an average 3B STR, she may struggle to wound high defense targets without Backstab, thus is not considered an offensive hero compared to other heroes. Backstab may still be used on low defense targets such as spawn points in situations where the Rogue may want to fish for potions and hearts. Bamf! grants the Rogue an Aura 2 Stealth that covers a respectable 24 squares. As the Rogue already has Stealth, this effect does not stack on her and is primarily intended to aid her allies. This may be used to support allies that are scouting ahead, falling back in retreat, to protect her Pet from ranged attacks, or force the Consul's ranged minions into the range of the Heroes' own ranged attacks. Bamf! can be extremely powerful in Arcade when used to grant Stealth to the Hero that is the Consul's target in addition to the rest of the party to mitigate or completely negate the Consul's offensive commands for that turn. As Bamf! can affect multiple targets, it avoids the situation where the Consul's target is out of range, but the rest of the party is not and thus suffer the monster's attacks. Note that Stealth can backfire in Arcade as it can force all the monsters to move into melee rather than their max range, thus potentially putting the heroes at further risk to AOE attacks they may not otherwise suffer without Stealth. Potion: Dimensional Draught gives the party access to Teleport, greatly increasing the party's mobility as long as they can fuel the Rogue with potions. The Rogue cannot roll any potions on her own without Backstab (doing so greatly reduces the chance of success and popping the potion!). The Rogue can use Teleport herself to quickly traverse tiles and scout ahead of the party, typically to use her Luck on Treasure Chests or Backstab on spawning points, relying on Stealth to prevent or reduce reprisal from the Consul. She can also use the potion to facilitate hit and run tactics by teleporting in or out of melee and relying on her 7 movement and Stealth to avoid reprisal. The rest of the party can use Teleport both offensively to engage, defensively to retreat, or strategically to meet plot objectives. As it is not a Move action, it allows the party to reposition Heroes that may be affected by Knockdown, Slow, and Immobilize and avoids retaliation from Predator. As with any potion, Heroes with Potion Master may use it twice in an activation if they are able to resupply the Rogue with a potion during their activation. Teleport does require line of sight, so heroes that are completely surrounded by monsters that block their line of sight may not be able to Teleport to safety. Strategy: The Riftling Rogue is a utility Blaster STR/DEX hybrid melee hero. She has high mobility due to her above average movement and her access to Teleport from Dimensional Draught 'and is difficult for the Consul to focus due to Stealth. These traits generally allow her to move ahead of the party and loot Treasure Chests to give the party an edge sooner with Luck, attack undefended Spawn Points, or complete Plot objectives unless the Consul positions monsters specifically to defend against her intrusion, which may in turn reduce the number of monsters that may concentrated on the rest of the party. Because she defends with DEX, she is generally not affected by Arcade Challenges that force the heroes to defend using DEX as she will typically have better DEX than ARM. She will typically need to use '''Backstab '''on high defense monsters and can help improve her party avoid ranged attacks with '''Bamf!. ' '''Equipment/Buffs: '''The Riftling Rogue needs STR to improve her offense and ideally DEX to improve her defense, but can still make use of ARM if she is not able to obtain DEX gear. She will typically never need WILL. Unlike some hybrids, the Rogue gains no offense by improving her DEX so she can struggle to wound high defense targets without increasing her STR. In addition, since she always has Stealth, her defense may not be used often unless she is purposefully kept in melee. If loot starved, the Rogue can serve a support role by providing her party with Stealth, which can force the Consult to advance ranged monsters in range of the Heroes' own ranged attacks. Consider giving the Rogue additional potions so she can hold more Dimensional Draughts for when they're needed. Giving the Rogue additional action points gives her more flexibility during her activation after Backstab, but generally will not allow her to Backstab twice in an activation. '''Limitations: The Rogue has no access to AOE, only has average STR for basic melee attacks, and Stealth has no effect on melee monsters or AOE so the rogue can be overwhelmed by multiple, high movement melee monsters such as Kobolds or still caught in a Boss's AOE. She is reliant on her party to generate her potions until she is geared so it's possible for her to become isolated from her party with no potion, giving the Consul an opportunity to concentrate the monster's attacks on a smaller group of heroes. Although the Rogue defends with DEX, she can be loot starved and may need to rely on ARM for defense. Although she can procure Treasure to give her party an early edge, Luck can only counteract a single Boo Booty/Consul benefiting Treasure, and there isn't a guarantee this strategy will have sufficient benefit every game to justify bringing a utility hero. Backstab, despite being a powerful offensive action can still miss and due to the high action cost, prevent the Rogue from doing anything else meaningful on her activation. The Rogue has no movement enhancing abilities outside of her potion and increased movement and it reliant on Backstab to consistently roll Hearts and Potions successfully, so if she can be Poisoned, Knockdown, Slowed, or Immobilized, this can prevent her from using Backstab and hamper her mobility enough for the Consul to mob her with melee monsters or move ranged minions into position. The Consul can typically predict which objectives the Rogue is targeting once she leaves the party and can potentially set up a wall of monsters to block line of sight for Teleport to or from the the objective to cut her off, but this strategy can also backfire as it may put monsters in position to be defeated by AOE from other heroes. Bamf! is an Aura so the Consul can use Control actions on the Rogue to move her, and the Aura, to expose her allies and remove their Stealth. Party: The Riftling Rogue needs a party that provides AOE and Heals as she has access to neither. She prefers to avoid parties with other DEX heroes to avoid loot competition, but as a side effect, she will not typically need ARM, making it more plentiful for a Hero that may want to tank. Being a melee hero that only uses DEX defensively, she can be difficult to include in a balanced party of 3 heroes and generally shines in parties of 4 or more heroes where she can focus on utility. Also See: Riftling Rogue 2.0 Available Through Super Dungeon Explore: 1st EditionCategory:Heroes __NOEDITSECTION__